Roosevelt's shrew is distinguished by its very small claws. It has also been recorded along the forest-savanna margin in Central Africa.
The type specimen was described with a brown back, slightly grayer sides, and pale buff-gray underparts sharply set off from the upperparts. Its tail was dark above and whitish below, its feet were pale, and its claws were very small.
A shrew-community study in Central Africa reported C. roosevelti at the rainforest margin in a forest-savanna mosaic.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.